Cupcake display

These are some pictures that a photographer (Jacques Naude) took for the Mercury newspaper.

Edible cupcake ring!

Yay so I finally finished my ring!

Full colour

When polishing up all my jewellery for my exhibition next week tuesday I realised that I had never posted any pictures of this cupcake pendant. It was the first piece that I did with full colour and I was happy with the outcome!

Almost there...

Its taken a while but I have finally started making my new edible cupcake ring! I have only started with the base so far because I just needed to see if the cupcake was going to fit, and it does. Its a little tight but I'm sure it will be ok!

The only problem is that the cupcake holders that I got seem to flare outwards and my base for it to sit in does not. The little cupcake holder that I made for my last edible ring (below) went straight up and did not flare so I think I need to see if I can find more of those, or otherwise next time I will have to make sure that my base is slightly flared.

Margaux Lange

I am not too sure why I am only writing about Margaux Lange now because I have been following for blog for over a year now. I love seeing what she is up to and making next.


She works in silver resin and barbie doll parts. She's always using different parts of the barbie from the eyes, ears, hands, feet to the whole face, legs and arms. I love the playfulness of her subject matter!

baking biscuits

I attempted making my own cupcake cookie cutter. I rushed it a little so it didn't turn out too well but I now know what exactly to do! By looking at the cookie cutter, you cant really see that it is even a cupcake but once the icing is on it becomes visible. I like the idea of taking a very simple shape and then adding detail with the icing! This was my first time doing this so hopefully next time they will all turn out allot better!

Cookie cutting

Wow I just decided to look up cookie cutters on the net and have just found so many interesting things so I'm starting to feel very excited!

I want to start making my own cookie cutter shapes and learn how to ice them beautifully. I want to keep the shapes quite simple but add lots of detail to them with the icing.

Cant wait to start baking!

www.evadesings.com
www.kitchencritic.co.uk
www.stylefrizz.com

Resin problems....again!

Just thought id follow up with my resin baking.....
I tried pouring resin into these cute little baking trays that I found but they didn't quite work out as planed! The resin just stuck to the trays and I couldn't get them out! I even tried using a release agent before inserting the resin but that didn't seem to help either.
I am not too bothered though as I am busy piercing out some silver elements for my new platters that I am making for my little cupcakes to sit on and its going well.
Will post pictures soon!

Experimenting!

I found these cute little flower cookie cutters the other day so I thought id give baking a try in them. I put foil underneath and up the sides of them to keep the mixture of leaking and it actually worked! I found that the smallest of the cookie cutters didn't work too well as when I try get them out of the mould, they just look like blobs!















I want to now try make my own shapes that I could use because its quite hard to find exactly what I want in the right size. I also prefer the look of the cake when it is still in the cookie cutter so I want to try maybe making them out of silver and then actually leave them in there for my edible jewellery range for my final exhibition! I will basically have to make my finished piece of jewellery and then bake the cake in it last! Not too sure how it will work but I'm excited to give it a try!

Baking with resin

Ok so the baking in the kiln went really well yesterday but today I have decided to bake with resin! I found this really cute little mould that reminds me alot of jelly so I have decided to try set a clear resin with 100's & 1000's in them. The 100's & 1000's seem to sink to the bottom so I'm not too sure how they will come out but I guess il just have to wait and see!

Kiln baking

I really liked the idea of the edible cupcake ring that I made for Redeye last week and I definately want to make more of them.













One problem that I have is that I've got a very tiny oven at home that is not ideal for baking in, so whenever I do need to bake it becomes a bit of a mission. I decided to try give the kiln at my tech a try as I found out that it can be set to an exact temperature. I went in early this morning, set it to 180 degrees and started baking! I was very happy when it all worked out fine so now I will be able to bake more delicious things and soon have a much bigger range of edible jewellery!


























I made the cupcakes very plain because I was just testing to see that it all worked but I have recently brought quite a lot of new exciting baking tools so I cant wait to get started!

Redeye....

Here are some pictures of one of the models wearing my jewellery at Redeye. I battled to get any good shots of her wearing the ring but managed to get a few of the earrings. It was a great evening. All the models looked amazing and did a great job showing off the jewellery!

Edible jewellery!!

This is a ring that I made for Redeye. Redeye is an event that includes art, fashion, music, dance and performance.

I made a pair of cupcake earrings as well as this edible cupcake ring. Although it was quite rushed, I was quite excited at the way it turned out and I would definately like to make another one for my final year exhibition.

Mikala Mortensen

I found another jeweller who kind of fits into the interactive, playful jewellery category. Just like me, Mikala Mortensen is working with the puzzle piece and has created 2 rings that fit into one another.

I am not too sure what it is but I am so drawn to jewellery that one put together and take apart so its great to find other people who are also doing it.

I was trying see what makes her piece somehow seem more 'mature' than my puzzles (bottom of page) and I think it that maybe its because she has kept hers very simple and clean. I'm not too sure.....or maybe it could be that she has not used any colour? That 'mature' quality is still something that I have to work on to achieve in my jewellery.

Mette Klarskov Larsen

I know that I haven't posted much on my own work lately but I have been busy researching other jewellers that I feel relate in some way or another to my own own. I have spent many hours on the internet and in the library but I think it has been worth while because I have found lots of interesting jewellers out there which I will be posting up during the next week or so.

I am gona start off with Mette Klarskov Larsen even though the way she talks about and sees her work is quite different to the way in which I am looking at it.

I am trying to look at the different ways in which a piece of jewellery can be considered playful and one of these include the jewellery being interactive. These rings to me would fall under that category. By interactive jewellery I mean jewellery that one can actually 'play' with. The heart is only formed once the 2 rings are put together and this is something similar to what I was doing with my half heart and star earrings at the bottom.

Lindsey Mann

"I hope my jewellery will delight the wearer and make people smile."

Wow id definitely have to say that Lindsey Mann is one of my favourite jewellery designers at the moment!

I really enjoy the toy-like quality that her jewellery has, where she almost always has little sections that can actually move. This allows the wearer to be able to 'play' with the piece of jewellery itself.

She works in anodised aluminum which she prints herself along with precious metals and found objects. The aluminum allows her to get the bright colours, along with the found objects that she uses.

Etsy Shop!!!!!

Yay I am very excited that I have just created my own Etsy shop. It only has 2 items of jewellery up on it so far but I will be adding some more up soon so please go and have a look!

Cora Sheibani

I have been looking for a jeweller who makes playful jewellery but in a more 'mature' way so I was very excited when I came across jeweller Cora Sheibani. She works with such a fun and playful subject matter, such as cupcakes, jelly's and puddings but somehow her work still has that 'mature' edge to it which is something that I have been wanting to do with my own jewllery but just wasn't too sure where to start. Its great to see that it can be done so hopefully I will soon also have some 'mature' playful jewellery!

Mini Catalogue

I have been busy making a catalogue where I made mini collages of my jewellery so I just thought i'd share some of the pages that I used!

Real Cupcakes!!!

Just thought i'd show some pictures of the new cupcakes that I made this weekend. Hopefully soon the jewellery will follow!

Flavours exhibition!

The opening of the exhibition was on Monday night and it went really well and I was happy with the way my display turned out. For the first time my display turned out exactly the way I had planned it in my head.

I wanted my display to have a very playful feel to it and I think that I achieved that by the different sized and coloured frames that were placed randomly around the board, along with the graffiti. The graffiti was done by Dieta ( sorry not sure of his surname) and I was very happy with the way it turned out. I just let him do his own thing because I dont know too much about graffiti, so I think he did a really good job!

On the side of my display I had a stand of brightly coloured cupcakes that I had made as I felt that they would look quite nice together with my cupcake jewellery! I wasnt able to get a good photo of them so I think that I will just have to make some more!!

Overall the exhibition was great and I think it is going to help us alot for the planning of our final BTech exhibition which will take place at the end of the year.

Flavours

Flavours is an exhibition by Durban emerging jewellers which is going to be held at artSpace on Monday the 13th July at 18.00 so if you are from the Durban area, come and have a look. The exhibition will run until the 1st August.

MORE cupcakes!!!

Here are two more pieces that I am working on at the moment for my exhibition. They both still need more work done on them but I am happy with the result so far!

They are the first pieces that I have done without using colour for ages! I think it is because at the moment I am trying to work on the whole cupcake theme so colour is not the main focus for them.

Red Cherries

Its taken a while but I have finally finished my cupcake earrings and I am very happy with the outcome!

I really like the look of having just the cherries in red! I will be trying to do some in full colour next but im not sure if I will like them as much! I have got a few ideas of waht to make next so I guess its off to work!!

Just thought id show some pictures from the comrades marathon (89km) that I ran last weekend.

It was an awesome race but I am very happy that's its over and done with. Now I can stop worrying about it and actually start getting some work done!!

I will hopefully be posting some new pics of my jewellery later on today if all goes as planned!

Cupcakes

Well I am in the process of making some cupcake earrings but I have had so much other stuff going on at the moment that they have taken a quite a while. It started off with an order for pierced out silver cupcake earrings so now I want to make more but using resin to add some colour.

For the ones that I am making now, I am only going to be putting red resin inside the cherries but I am wanting to make more with full colour as well. I just need to be careful when picking the colours because I am scared of them becoming a little too 'kitsch.'

I think there is alot that I can do with the cupcakes so I just need to start playing!!

Whats your flavour???

These are definately my flavour in shoes!!!

http://www.cloggs.co.uk/invt/5883
http://www.rawshoe.co.uk

Cracking Resin!!!!!!

I have an exhibition coming up in July so I really wanted to make some bigger and bolder pieces of jewellery. I decided to make this bangle which comes from the rings that I was previously making.

The only problem is that the resin does not seem to be setting properly as it keeps on cracking and pulling away from the sides. It is the same resin that I used for the rings and they worked fine so I'm not too sure what the problem is.

I was originally very excited to make this bangle but after all the problems I am not so keen to carry on. While I was making this bangle I was also making a pair of cupcake earrings for a customer, which I had lots of fun doing. I think for now I will carry on playing a little more with the cupcakes and will come back to finishing this bangle at a later stage!

Islay Jane Spalding

I just want to show some pictures of Islay Jane Spalding's work. She is one of my favourite jewellers as her work is just so fun. She has got a few different ranges but the 2 that I love most are her biomorph's and her biocube's.

Her biomorph's range is inspired by Surrealist art and her biocube's range were a result from her biomorph's but she used straight lines and angles instead of the curves.

I love her bright bold use of colour and the simple shapes that she sticks to. Click on the link to see more of her amazing work.

Orders

At the moment I am busy making stock for a shop in Cape Town called Mememe. They saw my work at Design Indaba and placed an order for some of my jewellery. I am really excited about it because I have only had my jewellery in 1 shop in Durban so it will be interesting to see how it sells over there.

For now they have asked me to send them 1 pair of the black half heart earrings, 4 resin square rings and 2 puzzle pendants and if they do well they will place a bigger order. Holding thumbs!!

Display Options

These earrings were part of my display at Design Indaba. I had most of my jewellery in the showcase ( as you can see in my previous posts.) I decided to display these earrings separately on the wall as I wanted them to be displayed together. I think more of a impact is created as the shape formed becomes clearer. I also had pictures up of a friend wearing the earrings next to them so that people could see what they looked like on the wearer.

I noticed that a lot of people were more drawn to the earrings on the wall as they were not behind glass, therefore they could be touched. This got me thinking about trying to find new interesting ways of displaying my jewellery other than being in a showcase. Any ideas?

Pink leopard print

I have always had a thing for animal print stuff so I made this leopard print heart pendant last year for a Christmas market that I was doing. As much as I enjoyed making it and liked the outcome, it is not something that I would go back to making again!

Design Indaba

This was the stand that was next to me at Design Indaba. It was two young guys Johan Truter and Matthew Olckers who were exhibiting their T-shirts which they had designed. I think their concept of using a fridge was such an awesome idea and it definitely attracted a lot of people. They had a few T-shirts hanging up on a rail so people could look though the designs but the rest were all packaged and stacked up in the fridge, which I think was so clever.

I am really interested in getting these guys to help me out with my final B-tech exhibition at the end of the year as I really love their style and I think it would go well with my jewellery. The only problem is that they are based in Cape Town so its a little far but I am hoping to make some kind of a plan by the end of the year.

Design Indaba

This was my stand at the Design Indaba. I kept it really clean and simple as I did not want my display to attract away from the jewellery. For my wall, I displayed all my 'half earrings' in frames with pictures of people wearing the earrings next to it. I displayed all the rest of my work inside the showcase on different size rubiks cubes and perspex. While setting up my display, I was a little worried about it being too simple because some of the other displays were very busy but I ended up getting good comments on it from different people so I was happy.

Having my jewellery on display was such a great opportunity to chat to different people about my work and was also good to see which pieces were the most popular. I was happy to see that the jewellery that everyone seemed to comment on most was all my new work such as my half earrings, square resin rings and the square heart earrings which I had just made a few days before the expo. This helped me feel a little more confident about my work as I now feel that I am heading in the right direction.

Because my work has such a young playful feel to it, it attracted a lot of the younger school children. The problem is that all the younger people don't really have the money to spend on jewellery. It has been something that has been bothering me for a while, because I don't really want to change my style of jewellery but at the same time I want it to appeal to a wider market. It is definitely something that I have to think about but for the moment I will carry on making the jewellery that I like and what makes me happy! =)

Back again......

WOW its been so incredibly long since I have blogged. Feels like I have so much to catch up on, so its hard to know where exactly to start.

Think I am just gonna start by putting up some pictures of my latest work which I have been doing for Design Indaba. Design Indaba Expo is South Africa’s premier showcase of local design in all sectors. Its features advertising, architecture, craft, decor, film, fashion, graphic design, interior, jewellery, new media, publishing, product design and visual media. I was part of the emerging creatives programme, which is where a few up and coming designers are sponsored and given a chance to exhibit their work. It was such amazing event to be part of and I am so grateful that I was given the opportunity. I will be putting up pictures of my stand at the expo soon!

Back with the hearts....

Another pair of earrings with the half hearts, but I just really liked the first pair so couldn't help myself. As I said in my last post, its my exhibition coming up very soon so I'm trying to make a few more of these types of earrings. There next pair that I am busy making will hopefully form a flower and I am still deciding on the colour, but am thinking of maybe using a pinkish colour. I know that in these photos you can't really see, but the red that I used for these earrings is actually quite transparent, compared to the first heart earrings in which the red was very opaque. I am actually not too sure if I prefer the transparent or more opaque colours better but I suppose the more earrings that I make and the more I play around will help me form a decision.

Star earrings.....

I loved the outcome of the first pair of 'half earrings' that I made so I wanted to make more. These are my second pair and I chose to make a star instead of using the heart again. I realised that I always seem to stick to red or black resin so I decided it was about time to try using other colours, so I chose purple which ended up turning out really well.

It is my end of year exhibition coming up in less than 3 weeks so I am wanting to make a few more of these half earrings to display so its time to start working hard for me!!

My training begins........

While watching the comrades marathon on tv earlier this year I decided that it was something that I really wanted to to do so that following week I decided to start my training. I started off running around the Stella sports field in the afternoons and at the start was only able to run 3 times round which then slowly progressed to about 8. Once I had reached that point I decided to rather try and join the Stella athletics club so that I would have other people to run with, and would no longer just have to run around a field. The people at the club were really great and encouraging and before I knew it I was able to run 10km with them.

This last weekend I ran my first half marathon (21km) so I finally feel as though I am getting somewhere. I know that 21km is still a long way off from the 89km of the comrades, but I am very motivated and I am sure with alot more training and dedication I will eventually get there!!!

Strawberry Studs

I found these little buttons at home that I had bought a while ago cause I thought they were cute. They were just lying around and I wasn't doing anything with them, so I decided to cast them into silver and turn them into little stud earrings. I think they turned out really cute and they were quite easy to do, so I definatley want to make more. For the next pair I want to try and incorporate some red resin into the little indents as I much prefer having jewellery with colour it in. I think the red resin will help make the earrings stand out more and just add a little something extra to them!

Messing around!

I was just messing around a little on photoshop with one of my images and thought that it looked really cool so I decided to put it up!

Half hearts....

So I finally solved my resin problem! Turns out there wasn't actually a problem with the resin but rather with the way I was using it. My problem before was that the resin was starting to pull away from the walls and starting to crack so I thought there was a problem with the resin that I was using but what I realised was that I actually need to make grooves in the metal so that the resin could hold better. I made my grooves with a undercutting burr all along the inside walls of the earrings and also made sure that the metal was very clean before pouring my resin in and it seems to have worked so I am very very happy!!! =)

Since I have now solved my problem, I can finally start making some more jewellery. I would like to make a few pieces with this idea of only once the 2 halves are put together, can u then see the picture. I have already started making a second pair of earrings where when u put them together, they form a star, but separately they just look like very abstract shapes.

White dress photo shoot.......

These are just some fun photographs that I got to do in my holidays for this awesome photographer, Adrian Shields. They are part of a series called the 'white dress photo shoot' where he is photographing about 15 girls and maybe even a few guys in this same white dress, just in different settings. It was a really fun photo shoot and I enjoyed doing it. All of his pictures can be found on his facebook page so you can just click on the link to see them.

Cut out puzzles!

I really love the look of these earrings but I have to find a new way to make them. My problem is that the resin is starting to pull away from the side of the metal and is also starting to crack. Generally my jewellery always has some sort of backing plate behind so then the resin can just sit on the plate, but for these earrings I wanted the resin to be on both sides so there is no plate behind which is causing the resin to come out.

One way to solve this problem would be to have a backing plate where the resin will be, but I would prefer the resin to be visable on both sides so that when the earrings spin around, you will be able to see the colour from all angles so I think that I am going to have to start experimenting with different types of resins. At the moment I am using an acrylic resin which is quite brittle and is forming cracks so I want to try use an epoxy resin but I will have to find what pigment to use to get the colour. Hopefully it will work better because I really want to carry on with this idea as it is the most excited that I have been for a while and I have got lots of new designs which I am wanting to make.

Another drunken monster!

This is my latest little sock monster. In terms of my sewing skills, this monster is probably my neatest one that I have made so far. I want to try start personalising each monster, so for this one I sewed a little heart onto the back saying 'love you'

Drunken Monsters.....

I came across this awesome blog on Monday which shows you how to make monsters out of socks. I found them on monster-munch and I just loved the look of them so decided it was time that I took a break from jewellery and start making some little sock monsters, although im not too sure that they actually look like monsters at all, but rather like some drunken creatures. My sewing skills are not too good at the moment considering that I have not actually sewn anything before, but never the less I really enjoyed making them.

From making these monsters, it has actually inspired me to maybe make a range of monster jewellery but it is something that I have to think about, but for the moment I still want to play around making a few more little sock monsters which will hopefully improve my sewing skills and maybe by the end of it, my monsters will actually start looking like monsters.

*** A New Start ***

I have decided to go back to my puzzle pieces for the moment because they were something that I really enjoyed making and I have got some new ideas for them.

My idea use to use the puzzle pieces with resin, but instead of the actual puzzle being set with resin, I would like the background to have the resin. I want to try create different shapes around the puzzles, so that those shapes actually form the picture and not necessarily the puzzle piece. I have just cut a few puzzle pieces out out rhino and have cast them so now I must just start creating the walls to go around them. I am very excited about this idea and am just hoping that they turn out as planned.

Problem Solving......

Attempt no.2 did not go as planned, as I tried remaking the pieces that didn't turn out too well but they too, ended up messing up. I think my work is not working out at the moment because I am just not passionate about it, and not very motivated.

These are the earrings that I was trying to make and they were inspired by my platinum all-star earrings. I do like the overall effect of the earrings but there are lots of small problems with them that went wronge in the manufacturing process. The first mistake was that I stuck the betty boop image onto an old dragon ball z tazo, which then showed through the image, once the image got wet from the resin. The reason I stuck the image onto a tazo was because I needed the image to be on a harder surface so that it would stay in the dome once the resin was added. It was a bit of a stupid mistake and I now know for next time to sick it on a plain surface. The second mistake was that I thought the image would stay at the bottom of the dome but instead, once I added the resin the image started moving around and floating up to the surface. I also left the edges of the image very messy which shows underneath the resin.

I know that all these mistakes can be fixed but I think for the moment I am going to move away from these earrings and come back to them another time.

Attempt no.2

For the last month, or probably actually the last 2 months I have been feeling really unmotivated to make anything so I decided that last week I was going to just sit at my bench and start making some jewellery. At first I got quite excited because I found all these cool images and I had some ideas of what to make, but the end product did not turn out as planned. I ended up making some really stupid mistakes in the manufacturing process, so in the end everything messed up. So this week I am trying attempt no.2 and hopefully it turns out a little better than last week. At least I now know what to do and what not to do, so hopefully my pieces will actually work out. I am hoping to have at least 1 finished piece by the end of the week and then I will be posting some photos up.

Old School........

I really liked the way my platinum earrings turned out, so this week I am going to try make of range of both earrings and rings focusing on the same concept of the platinum earrings and my lucky bean jewellery, using domes. Like with my platinum earrings I am going to be working more with perpex, which I quite enjoyed using and like my lucky bean jewellery, I am going to use resin but am going to try find different things to capture instead of the lucky beans.

I also want to find a way to uses images in this same range. I have been looking at some 'old school' cartoons to use that most people would recognise, because I generally always seem to stick to my same dragon ball z or manga images. I feel that by using older cartoons, my jewellery might appeal to more people as the images used will bring back memories of childhood. I know that I was getting so excited by just looking up these images on the net, so I hope when people see these images in my jewellery, they will get just as happy.

References: store.hollywoodwax.com/images/betty%20boop%20..
www.alibytes.com/.../2008/05/cookiemonster.jpg
www.xoospace.com/myspace/backgrounds/22827.jpg
i225.photobucket.com/albums/dd298/charlotte_d...

Platinum All-Star earrings

As I said with one of my previous posts, I have busy with a platinum competition and the theme was anniversaries. The anniversary that I chose to celebrate is the 100th year of converse all-stars which is this month.

The design for my piece was inspired by my lucky bean jewellery which I then adapted to fit in with the all-star theme. The 2 domes and the wire hook are made from platinum but I decided to use silver for the star. I used silver because platinum cannot be oxidized and I wanted the contrast between polished and blackened metal. I then used red perspex behind the star to also create some contrast, as with all of my work, colour plays an important part. I am very happy with the way the earrings turned out and am definitely going to be making more of them using silver.